Public sector pay freeze will affect 140,000 troops, MoD confirms

Around 140,000 members of the Armed Forces will be affected by the Coalition’s
public sector pay freeze, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Armed forces will be affected by public sector pay freezePhoto: REUTERS

By James Kirkup

6:30AM BST 02 Jul 2010

Around three-quarters of uniformed personnel will have their pay frozen for two years, the MoD said.

The pay freeze, announced in last week’s Budget, affects any public sector employee earning more than £21,000 a year.

Labour last night claimed that the freeze on Armed Forces pay was a “betrayal”.

The Government responded by saying that allowances for frontline troops are being doubled, and that many Forces personnel will get pay rises because of routine promotions.

Andrew Robathan, a defence minister, said in a written answer to MPs: “It is estimated that about three quarters or some 140,000 service personnel are on salaries above £21,000 and so would be subject to the public sector pay freeze next year.”

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He added that “most service personnel” whether in receipt of a pay rise or not, will continue to receive “annual increments on the anniversary of their seniority in rank” and so will still get an increase in pay.

David Cameron announced last month that the Coalition will double the payments made to troops serving in Afghanistan, raising the “operational allowance” for a six-month tour to around £5,280.

Those payments will be backdated to May 6, the day of the general election, at a cost of £58 million a year, met from the Ministry of Defence’s core budget.